The World Wide Web uses a growing variety of media, styles and elements arranged in the form of web pages. These web pages contain various types of content including text, pictures and other compelling visual formats. A web page may designate one or more content areas for placement of an advertisement (“ad”). The ad may be in the form of a graphical ad, such as a banner ad, text only ad, image ad, audio ad, video ad, ad combining one of more of any of such components, executable code, or any other media, content, or interactive advertisement and the like. The ad may also include embedded information, such as links, meta-information, and/or machine executable instructions.
The ad also may have various intrinsic features. Such features may be specified by an application and/or by an advertiser, often depending on the type of ad. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features may include a title line, ad text, and an embedded link. In the case of an image ad, ad features may include images, executable code, and an embedded link.
When an ad is displayed on a web page, the serving conditions of the ad may not be easily combined with the existing conditions serving the web page. For example, an ad might include rendered text using an “Arial” font, whereas the text displayed on the web page containing the ad may be rendered using a “Times New Roman” font. For example, the text in an ad may be rendered in font size “24” whereas the text displayed on the web page serving the ad may be rendered in font size “12”. For example, the text in an ad may be rendered in one color (e.g., red) and the text displayed on the web page serving the ad may be rendered in another color (e.g., blue). To improve the “look and feel” of an ad, a publisher is generally supplied with various display options to ensure, for example, color, style, and format consistency between the ad and the content being published by the publisher. The publisher can manually specify the features of the ad, in addition to any advertiser or application specifications for the ad. For example, the publisher can select the color(s) used for rendering the text in an ad. This process, however, is time and labor intensive, and often tedious in nature.